Federal environmental responsibilities for the largest hospital plan in Canada—The Ottawa Hospital

Petition: 477

Issue(s): Environmental assessment; Governance; Human/environmental health; Toxic substances; Water

Petitioner(s): A Canadian resident

Petitioner location(s): Ottawa, Ontario

Date received: 2 February 2023

Status: Replies pending / Completed—Response(s) to petition received

Summary: The petition raises concerns about the National Capital Commission’s 2016 recommendation report for The Ottawa Hospital and, more specifically, about the site that was ultimately chosen for the hospital’s new Civic Campus and parking garage project. The petition states that according to the comparative analysis, the commission’s Evaluation Committee recommended Tunney’s Pasture as the preferred site for the campus because of its size, shape, proximity to the urban core, distance from other hospitals, and vehicular access. The petition highlights that despite this recommendation, the Central Experimental Farm (the former site of the Sir John Carling Building) was chosen as the site.

According to the petition, the garage proposal was approved, provided that conditions imposed by the commission were met. However, this was despite the concerns expressed by stakeholders, community organizations, and individual citizens and their condemnation of the garage project being built on undeveloped green spaces and treed parkland. Furthermore, the petition notes that Public Services and Procurement Canada and the commission leased the former site of the Sir John Carling Building and adjacent parkland to The Ottawa Hospital in 2018 but placed conditions and criteria on the Federal Land Use and Design Approval, which had not been met as of the end of December 2022.

The petition states that the Sir John Carling Building’s destruction in 2014 severely contaminated the location with highly toxic compounds and that the hospital failed to disclose this to the committee. The petition maintains that volunteers who investigated reports of the demolished building found contaminated soil and groundwater after a partial decontamination of the building but that once the hospital leased the site from Public Services and Procurement Canada as a private property, it was accepted for the project. The petition asks what the results of the risk and mitigation environmental assessments done before and after the building was demolished showed and what led to the switch of the preferred hospital site from Tunney’s Pasture to the Central Experimental Farm, given that the farm grounds were contaminated. Furthermore, the petition asks how much it cost to change the location and decontaminate the site and whether any regulatory criteria were used in the decontamination. The petition questions whether the criteria and the ground contamination were communicated to the federal government and to the hospital when the hospital leased the land.

According to the petition, the Sir John Carling Building’s west annex remained federal property, was deemed too toxic for hospital use, and was demolished and decontaminated. The petition asks whether Public Services and Procurement Canada knew about the contamination during the property’s evaluation and what type of data the department received regarding environmental toxicity. The petition maintains that the hospital was aware of this site’s contamination and of the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada’s ruling to deconstruct and decontaminate it and to not use it for the hospital. In addition, the petition indicates that the hospital failed to disclose that the site no longer met the minimum space requirement of 50 acres for the hospital development that were critical in the federal switch from the commission's recommended Tunney’s Pasture site to the lower-ranked farm site. Given this, it asks how the federal choice of the farm can be justified.

Finally, the petition questions whether the federal government plans to consult with the Algonquin Nation regarding the land use on the nation’s unceded territory in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

Federal departments/organizations responsible for reply: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; Canadian Heritage; Environment and Climate Change Canada; Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Health Canada; National Capital Commission; Parks Canada; Public Services and Procurement Canada